This is what a suspected bomber looks like

In this Friday, April 19, 2013 Massachusetts State Police photo, 19-year-old Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, bloody and disheveled with the red dot of a sniper's rifle laser sight on his forehead, raises his hand from inside a boat at the time of his capture by law enforcement authorities in Watertown, Mass. (AP Photo/Massachusetts State Police, Sean Murphy)

A police photographer who posted photos of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev during his arrest has now been suspended.

National outrage continues over the Rolling Stone cover of Tsarnaev looking like a rock star or a teen heartthrob. To counter it, Massachusetts State Police photographer Sgt. Sean Murphy released never-before-seen pictures showing what a suspected bomber really looks like.

The photos show a bloodied Tsarnaev, in one with the light from a laser gun sight on his forehead.

"He wanted people to know that is what a bomber looks like," says Ron & Don Show host Don O'Neill, speaking of tactical photographer Sgt. Sean Murphy, who released the photos. "That's what suspect number two looked like after he got done destroying many lives."

A statement from Murphy was posted along with the photos featured at Boston Magazine where Murphy expressed his outrage at Rolling Stone's cover photo selection.

"An image like this on the cover of Rolling Stone, we see it instantly as being wrong. What Rolling Stone did was wrong. This guy is evil. This is the real Boston bomber. Not someone fluffed and buffed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine," he writes.

Ron & Don co-host Ron Upshaw says if anyone knows the power of a cover, it's Rolling Stone, so they had to have known what they were doing. And while the cover has drawn attention to a story that Ron acknowledges may be important, he says their cover image is not sending the right message.

"I think the packaging on it has been so off-putting to Americans that they really come across as tone deaf, and that's something that has done a disservice to the months of journalism that has been put into this story."

Ron points out the photos released by Boston Magazine could potentially have gained them as much traction without all the negative feelings.

"I think that if Rolling Stone had done their research, I bet they could have gotten this photograph," says Ron of the tactical police image, adding that the photograph garnered so much online interest for Boston Magazine it nearly crashed their website.

The Rolling Stone issue featuring Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover hit newsstands Friday, but some retailers have refused to put the issue out for sale.

About the Author

Jamie Skorheim
Whether it's floating on Green Lake, eating shrimp tacos at Agua Verde, or taking weekend drives out to the Cascades, she loves to enjoy the Pacific Northwest lifestyle as much as humanly possible.